Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what health and safety regulations apply to the demolition of buildings containing asbestos and prior exposure of staff who previously worked in such buildings.

Demolition is construction work as defined by the Construction Design and Management Regulations 2015 (CDM). Asbestos is a hazard which may give rise to risk and so information on its presence in a building should form part of the pre-construction information which the client must make available to the contractors involved.

In addition, all work with asbestos (including demolition) is subject to the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 (CAR) which requires exposure to asbestos to be prevented or reduced to as low a level as reasonably practicable. In cases of final demolition the employer’s plan of work must, so far as is reasonably practicable, specify that asbestos must be removed before any demolition starts, unless removal would cause a greater risk to employees than leaving it in place.

CAR also requires the owner, or person responsible for maintenance (the ‘duty holder’) of a non-domestic building to record the location and condition of any asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) and to put into place a plan to manage the risk they present. The duty holder is responsible for managing the risk at the time they hold the duty; they are not responsible for prior exposure to earlier building occupants. The record of the location and condition of any ACMs, and management plan, must be available for as long as ACMs are present in the building.